Superhero movies rise to the top

Friday

It seemed like "Avengers: Infinity War" was only out for about a month before the other highly anticipated superhero flick "Deadpool 2" premiered, because it was truly about a month.

It seemed like “Avengers: Infinity War” was only out for about a month before the other highly anticipated superhero flick “Deadpool 2” premiered, because it was truly about a month.

“Avengers” has been hailed by some movie-goers and critics alike as this year’s hottest movie, and possibly the best superhero movie of all time. For those unaware, “Avengers: Infinity War” follows the “supergroup” The Avengers in their quest to stop the end of the world at the hands of the villain Thanos. The movie was out for a day before droves of memes and spoilers took over Facebook. Within a month, “Deadpool 2” premiered, and now both movies, both are running concurrently.

Both movies were major hits at the box office around the world, pretty much just competing against each other at this point. Forbes hailed the success of “Deadpool 2,” and headlines, if you do a Google search for the films, focus on the fact that “Deadpool” has surpassed “Avengers” in the box office. Not long before that, the movie “Black Panther” took pop culture by storm.

What I am getting at is the saturation of superhero movies in cinema currently, to the point where the heavy-hitting superhero movies’ only competition at the box office is its peers.

In the past, I really hated this idea. I hated how superheroes had taken over comics, video games and movies. I wanted more stand-alone films that highlighted the director’s and writer’s skill, rather than highlighting action sequences that merely stupefy younger viewers on the big screen. However, my opinion has changed. My negative opinion on superhero movies was at a time when Tobey Maguire ruined “Spider-Man” movies for me and when a superhero movie was as common as a penny on the ground, and worth about just as much.

My opinion has changed for the positive, I think, because superhero movies have just gotten better. I loved Christian Bale’s portrayal of Batman, in “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” and since those darker superhero movies first premiered I think superhero movies got a little bit more in the adult swing of things, making them something more than just a media campaign to bring in the big bucks with toys and T-shirts.

Superhero movies have also been where we see the most on-screen innovations in terms of computer-generated imagery and amazing camera work. Acting has gotten better, too, as stars like Robert Downey Jr. aren’t threatening their careers by taking up a failure of a superhero movie like the early “Green Lantern” films that went nowhere, and the new Marvel universe supplies an endless list of directions to go movie-wise. Simply, if an actor starred in some bad superhero movies, that could have sunk them as actors or had them stuck only in that role for the rest of their careers. Not so much anymore.

I also realized that a lot of the other movies that are hitting the theaters nowadays lack originality. I had thought that basing a movie off of a cemented comic was what you did when you wanted money but had no ideas for a movie. Yet, there are countless remakes and sequels that take up space on Redbox or when you are searching through movies On Demand, and those saturate the market more than superhero movies. I nearly lost my mind when I accidentally rented “Cabin Fever” from a Redbox kiosk, realizing it was a 2016 remake of the original, which was less than 15 years old and still holds up in regards to its cinematography and acting.

The limitless possibilities of the Marvel universe and other new revisions of comic book heroes in movies provide countless directions to take the movies and their plots. Sure, these movies are still based off of comics, but the majority of people aren’t versed in the expansive and confusing world of superhero comics, and to them many of these concepts and story lines are new.

A friend and Gardner resident Christian Clark is the biggest superhero nerd I know, and I mean that in a good way. He in part is a reason my opinion has changed over time, really debating the value of these films and how far they can take viewers.

Clark brings up the fact that superhero movies, namely Marvel-based ones, have a little for everyone, comedy, love, action and underdog stories, while simultaneously intertwining with one another to create a cinematic universe that keeps viewers coming back. Further, he also argues that these movies lately have been relatively accurate to their comic book origins, which have consistently thrown unsuspecting viewers for a loop, as much of the twists are taken from what happened in the original comic but differ from stories already told in superhero movies over the past 20 years or so.

I will probably never be a superhero movie fan to the extent as even the average guy, but I’ve grown to see more value in them, especially when I think the state of big-picture films is so poor. I am not a movie expert, but it seems like the only positively creative movie-going experience at the moment is being put on by comic book companies that have specialized in capturing their fan base from day one.

Chance Viles is a staff writer at The Gardner News. He can be reached at 978-632-8000, ext. 28, or cviles@thegardnernews.com.

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